Missing in Action
by lookingforlyndsey
Summary: "What do you mean she's missing?" James asks; his mouth is open and his eyes are wide in horror. All the color drains from his skin and it now stands out, harsh against the black curls falling in his eyes. He pushes them back angrily; Lily keeps telling him he needs to cut his hair.
1. Part One

"What do you mean she's missing?" James asks; his mouth is open and his eyes are wide in horror. All the color drains from his skin and it now stands out, harsh against the black curls falling in his eyes. He pushes them back angrily; Lily keeps telling him he needs to cut his hair. When Dumbledore says nothing but bows is head, James stands up knocking the chair he was in over with a loud _thump_. He slams the left side of his fist against the desk, "_What do you mean she's missing_?"

"Calm down, mate." Sirius says from the couch behind James that's near the fire. James picks up the nearest object he can find - a glass - and throws it. It smashes against the stone lining of the hearth as he whirls around, walks over to his friend, and lifts him by the collar of his shirt. "Don't you fucking tell me to calm down." Sirius doesn't react. He knows this is a coping mechanism. James is pissed because he's terrified.

James let's go of Sirius and turns on his former Headmaster. "Tell me you're joking, Albus." He swallows back a sudden lump in his throat and steps up to the old mans' desk, suddenly overcome with an intense tremor throughout his body. "Tell me she's just late. Tell me she just went straight home instead of checking back here. Tell me something - anything - but that." He isn't angry anymore. His voice is shaking. He's clearly terrified. That's the thing about James… he doesn't crack under pressure, so in the instant when he is actually scared, everyone should be worried. Peter's stomach drops, Remus' chest twists, Sirius holds his breath. It's a chain reaction with those four. Not a thing that happens to one doesn't happen to another.

Lily was his, but they were all missing her.

James paces burn holes in the rug as he chews on his thumb, pulls on his hair. "Where was she when you last saw her?" Everyone is silent. In truth, no one could remember. Lily had been at breakfast that morning, her mission started at ten. She should be back by now. She should be here. She should be safe and free from harm and perfectly, absolutely fine. James crouches, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. The weight of possibility hits him in the head like a truck and he suddenly feels like his head is going to come apart if he doesn't hold it together himself. The pain is blinding. What are they doing to her? If she's going to die, God please let it be painless. "Like falling asleep," his mother told him when they spoke of his father's passing several years before.

_"Was he in a lot of pain?"_  
_ "No. He actually told me he was feeling a bit better."_  
_ "So it didn't hurt."_  
_ "Must've been like falling asleep."_

This is war though not a curse that's been in motion for four years. If she was captured by Death Eater's they will rip her apart hair by hair, nail by nail. James gags and leans forward muttering various choice words under his breath. This can't be happening. This is absolute, complete - for lack of a better word - bullshit. If this is a test to see how much he can handle, whoever is doing the testing wins. He doesn't want to feel like this ever again. It's like an elephant parking itself right on his back. The room around him is deadly silent. He could be the only one there. And he feels like it too: alone. The woman he loves is missing in action. But she isn't dead. He just isn't going to accept that. Not yet anyway. Where the _fuck_ is Lily?

There is a _crack!_ from in the kitchen and James's head snaps up. There is some shuffling and a cough. A very familiar cough. James bolts to his feet and books it to the door, bursting into the small yellow-tiled room that smells of burnt toast and antiseptic. She is bracing a chair, trying her very hardest to stay upright. She is beaten and bloody, pale and turning slightly green. She looks as though she could collapse any second but she's _alive_. Her knees buckle and he darts to her side, sinking to the floor with her in his firm grasp. Her head rests on his legs, one of his hands behind her head as he moves knotted strands of hair from her ashen face. Her shocked, shocking green eyes stare up at him, her mouth slightly open, her body beginning to tremble in his lap. "Thank Merlin- Thank _God_," he whispers putting his warm hand to her frozen cheek, "You're alive."

* * *

There's two parts to this. This one and one in Lily's point of view. It's all very vague, but it's supposed to be. So I suppose I'm simply asking you not to turn your nose up because it's not extraneously detailed.

I think you'll enjoy it either way. (:

Part two coming soon. xox.


	2. Part Two

_This didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to. It's clear I'm far better at writing for James in situations like this... buuuut, here you go anyway. 3 Enjoy. xx._

* * *

That morning she kissed her fiancee, hugged her best friend, gave her fiancee's best friend a pat on the shoulder and chugged her orange juice as she headed out the door. She then apparated to the Order house, which belonged to the lovely Mrs. Potter in Godric's Hollow. It was a safe house, but also where everyone had to check in at before and after a mission. Mrs. Potter, Dorea was an older woman with slowly greying hair and deep laugh lines around her eyes and mouth. The first time Lily ever met her had been several years before when she looked so much like James (or rather, he looked like her) that it was mind-blowing.

That morning she had been standing in the kitchen, just leaning against the counter and watching her many liberated but still loyal house-elves cooking breakfast. She had grinned when Lily walked in, "Hello daughter."

Lily smiled, "Not quite."

"I can dream," she said wistfully.

Lily laughed and gave her a quick kiss on each cheek, "Dumbledore here yet?"

Dorea rolled her eyes, "Of course."

Lily waved to her and walked down the hall to the study that was so regularly occupied by her ex-Headmaster. She tapped lightly and he called out for her to enter. Albus was sitting at the desk scribbling on a scroll when she walked in. Lily smiled at the familiar site and took a seat in the chair across the desk. "Morning Albus."

It was still strange calling him by his first name.

He looked up and smiled, "Ah, Ms. Evans. How are you this morning?"

"Well," she nodded politely.

Albus then told Lily of a warehouse in the heart of London that was rumoured to be a Death Eater safe house. It was most likely only a rumour but she was to check it out anyway. It was _too_ obvious to actually be anything.

They exchanged a few more pleasantries and off she went.

She was ambushed the moment she arrived. Bound, gagged, and knocked unconscious; Lily was moved to an unknown warehouse in a blank location: She was stuck.

_What, when, why, where, who?_

Well, she was set up. She was kidnapped the moment she arrived at her apparition point. She suspected it hadn't been a safe house at all, but information given to someone and then fed through a chain of people. They put up wards to warn of her arrival and she walked right into them. Why? Ha-ha, good one. Oh, Little mudblood Lily who was moving too far up the political chain for their liking. Time to off the ginger. _Where_ was she? That remained unanswered but the _who_ was revealed as a pair of heavy metal doors about ten feet in front of her blew wide open.

_Death Eaters._

Now to figure out which one' are all wearing masks and even then they're heavily hooded. _Figures_. Well except for the leader of the pack, but that's to be expected.

"Hello, Lily." He drawls, but there is pure, hysterical fear in his eyes that only someone who knows him as well as she does can see. Of course there is, she thinks. This is his lifestyle and he doesn't want her to die. He wishes she would stay out of it.

The feeling is mutual.

"Severus," she says casually, "Fancy meeting you here."

"Mm," is all he returns.

"Tying me up," she smiles, "Very classy." When he just stares at her, she wrinkles her nose, "Bit kinky."

Something flashes in his black eyes, "What a very _James Potter_ thing to say."

She shrugs. "Well, he is my fiancee."

Suddenly his wand is to her throat and the sizzle of her skin makes her eyes squeeze shut of their own accord. He twists it and she feels her neck become raw beneath its tip.

And then it happens; the loud bang and wave of magic that radiates out with such force the chair beneath her crumbles into dust. Her rope snaps and splits as she jumps to her feet, yanking her wand from Severus's front pocket. A moment of silence follows before all hell breaks loose. She stuns and she stuns until there is so much dust in the room it's impossible to make out one person from another. Damn her red hair though when someone grabs her by the arm and yanks her into an empty room.

She is safe inside this room, she realises. Of all the booms going on outside, here she was safe. She turns with gratitude on her face to find, Not Sev but another Death Eater. Her face grows hard as she raises her wand to point directly between his brows. Or where his brows would be. "Don't ever shoot at our masks," he tells her. His voice is familiar but she can't place it. Deep and throaty and rich. "Any spell will rebound and hit you." He taps his chest where his heart is. "Always aim for the ticker."

Lily narrows her eyes, "Who are you?"

He doesn't answer, only points to the window and says "Go."

Lily remains still, "How do I know this isn't a trap?"

The man sighs and pulls off his mask. Lily's face goes white, "_Regulus_."

"Look," he says instantly, his voice angry, "I don't want to do this anymore. In fact, I didn't even want to do it when I joined, I only thought I did. but it's a life sentence and if I up and say 'Hey, I'm done' it means death and I'm just not ready for that yet. So whenever someone is captured, I let them go. They don't suspect me yet but they will eventually. Sirius doesn't hate me. He'll never forgive me but he doesn't actually _hate_ me. However, if something happens to you, Evans, it happens to Potter too and from there it's a chain reaction."

"Reg-"

"Don't say anything to him. This is not bribery-" He's interrupted by a loud _BANG!_ that blasted part of the wall away. "_GO_!" He yells as he takes her by the arm and shoves her towards the window. She shoots out of it and turns back only to get a last glimpse of Regulus, "You're a good man," she yelled to him before turning on her heels and darting off in the other direction.

She runs until she's positive she's out of the charms and by that point her legs are about to give out from under her. She apparates to the first place she thinks of.

_Home_. But no one is there and she knows instantly where she'll find them.

The shock finally wears off when she lands in the Ourder house. She is going to throw up. Or pass out. Or both. She coughs an awful, choked hack and braces the first thing she can find which happens to be a wobbly kitchen chair.

The door on the other side of the kitchen bursts open and the face she needs so desperately to see steps into her quickly sinking line of vision. He might as well be an angel. "_James_" is all she can get out before her knees give out and the chair turns over, unable to support her weight. He dashes across the room and his warm, shaking arms encircle her before she could crack the hard linoleum floor. He says something to her as she lays there in his arms but she doesn't hear it. There's this whooshing of oncoming darkness in her ears and all she can do is stare, taken by how beautiful he is to her hazy, exhausted eyes.


End file.
